Have You Played... Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness?

Lara Croft in her darkest timeline.

The Angel of Darknessgets blamed for a lot of theTomb Raider franchise’s failuresin the early-to-mid 2000s — whether it’s the downfall of Core Design, the box office flop of the second Angelina Jolie movie, orthe continuity rebootthe series needed before anyone would agree to publish another one of its games. While I have to admit there’s some pretty damning circumstantial evidence there and that not every accusation is exactly unfounded, the game’s memetic unpopularity even among people who never played it still feels harsher than is warranted.

For one thing, AoD attempted to introduce several features that are pretty standard in action-adventure titles today, but were still quite innovative at the time — including allowing Lara to explore areas populated by interactable, non-hostile NPCs rather than enemies who existed solely for her to shoot at. This expanded world opened up so many new avenues, including what even nay-sayers will admit was the best narrative and dialogue of any Tomb Raider game up to that point. In a series first, it also introduced a second playable protagonist whose story intersected with Lara’s at various points.

Nevertheless, nearly two decades on, I still occasionally find myself hoping that the new Tomb Raider devs will bring back Kurtis someday. Hopefully after giving him aCarlos Oliveira grade redesign… or at least a good wash.